


Monster Phonebook of Monsters

by Paper0wl



Series: Rod and Shield [10]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Supernatural, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (Unless You're a Government Secret Agent), Episode: s07e03 The Girl Next Door, Fix-It, Gen, Guilt Trip, Secrets are Bad, Tesseract Problems, Trust Issues, Unconventional Families
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-21
Updated: 2014-09-21
Packaged: 2018-02-18 04:32:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2335409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paper0wl/pseuds/Paper0wl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Without a obvious candidate for the ill-fated Righteous Man, efforts to track (and stop) Lilith currently involve exorbitant amounts of mostly futile research. Not to mention the inevitable guilt tripping because Lilith got out of Hell due to Kyria's actions during the Battle of New York. </p>
<p>In other news, Sam's got a lead on a kitsune and hasn't told his brother. Because secrets go over <em>so</em> well. Right. At least he knows enough to ask for help.</p>
<p>Besides, kitsunes make a nice change from impending apocalypses.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Monster Phonebook of Monsters

Immersed in old records as she was, the buzz of her phone was startlingly and appallingly loud. The middle-aged woman who worked in the basement of the library evidently agreed with that assessment and glared balefully at Kyria, clutching at her knitting needles in a manner oddly reminiscent to Natasha and – anything from sporks to knives, really – when she got annoyed. 

“Sorry,” Kyria said with wince, hurriedly fishing it out of her bag. “I work in government security – I’m not allowed to turn it off.” Not answering her phone could very easily mean life or death for whoever was trying to get in touch with her. 

Accidentally electrocuting her phone (or getting it wet when she got thrown in the river, or breaking it while grappling with a wendigo, or any number of other things that somehow managed to damage her phone) was different. There was a reason she kept spares in all the vehicles she used, after all, even after Tony went through all the (not very much) trouble of making her a special resistant-to-everything StarkPhone. So far it was holding up, but Kyria didn’t doubt she’d find a way to break this one too. 

“Hey, Sam, what’s up?” she asked, answering the phone. 

“Why do you sound so quiet?” 

“Because the librarian looks like she wants to stab out my eyes with her knitting needles,” she replied, smiling politely at the woman in question as she quickly excused herself to continue the call in the bathroom. 

“Oh. Uh, sorry?” 

She shook her head, then remembered Sam couldn’t see her. “Not your fault. I’ve spent the last six weeks hitting half the small town libraries in the country, trying to track everything Azazel did in the last hundred years or so and figure out what Lilith’s game is. This librarian isn’t so bad.” 

“I’ve dealt with a lot of small town librarians,” Sam offered. He sounded . . . stilted. Hesitant. “Any word on what she’s up to yet?” 

“Besides murder and mayhem and making my life more complicated than it should be?” She blew out a breath of frustration. “Reports of demonic activity are up and I have no idea who she trying to set up as the Righteous Man.” 

“Dean knows better than to make a deal,” Sam said. Whether to reassure her or himself she wasn’t sure. 

“Yeah, I spoke to him,” Kyria agreed. “And Steve.” Not that Captain America would make a deal with a demon, but he fit the job description. “And _Adam_.” Because Winchesters were of _far_ too much interest to eldritch powers. “Righteous Men are a rare and specific bunch, and they’re the only ones I know who fit the description. This is why I was so set on you opening that gate for Azazel and getting your father out of there fair and square. Him I knew about. This – I don’t know. The whole network is on alert for demonic omens or possible righteous men.” 

“So it’s a waiting game?” 

“And a race. And a scavenger hunt. My life was much simpler when my _fucking sister_ was safely locked up.” Back then, she had been blissfully unaware that _both_ Heaven and Hell were neck-deep in the effort to spring Lucifer. Back then, she didn’t have the all-but-confirmed suspicion that Lilith had gotten out during the Battle of New York, when she connected to the Tesseract and unleashed her wings. 

Which made it her fault. 

If Lilith found a Righteous Man and lured him into Hell, it would be Kyria’s fault. If Lucifer got out _it would be her fault._

She _knew_ that both Heaven and Hell were neck deep in this and Lilith would have gotten out sooner or later, but that didn’t change the fact that Lilith _had_ been freed due to _her_ actions. No amount of nights pruning Heaven’s Garden could detract from that nasty little guilt-inducing fact. Might-have-beens and could-have-beens had little effect on the fact that she _was_ the one who opened the door. 

That it was accidental and unintentional didn’t do a thing to assuage the massive amount of guilt. Sam and Dean were her friends and she’d managed to throw them right back into the line of fire, along with offering Lilith the chance to rack up an impressive body count and endanger the entire _planet._

No, it wasn’t just aliens that threatened the planet – it was her family too. 

It seriously figured that as soon as she got sort of comfortable being Morningstar something like this would happen. Dr. Foster had some complicated scientific explanation involving similar energies and convergence and the laws of thermodynamics, but Kyria just called it her life. There was always something else. 

“Mine, too,” Sam admitted reluctantly. "The fact that the whole True Vessel thing is back on the table – “ 

“Sucks?” she offered. 

“That works.” She could hear the grimace in his voice. 

“It won’t come to that. I promise.” 

“You can promise that?” 

“If I can’t find her before sixty-five seals break . . . I _can_ keep you out of my father’s hands.” 

“You can?” His words were tight, tangled up with fear and desperation and uneasy hope. 

“I can.” Whether she had to deal for his soul, confront her father, trade herself to Heaven, beg Gabriel, or something else, she _would_ see that Lucifer never got Sam. She’d even try hunting down her grandfather, but Joshua gave off the impression that passing along a more personalized weapon was all God was willing to do. He was retired apparently, and “free will” was His successor. 

If she ever figured out how He managed to withdraw without the guilt eating Him alive, Kyria might try it herself. She could use a break from the constant headaches and the endless paperwork, never mind the whole _I-accidentally-opened-a-crack-and-Lilith-slipped-through_ guilt trip. 

With both sides stacking the deck, Lilith was always going to get out. She just had to keep telling herself that. And at least this way she knew it was unlikely anyone else would be able to replicate the procedure. 

The Tesseract wasn’t even on Earth anymore. _Thank the stars for small favors._

“Okay.” He breathed out slowly. “Okay. So. Um. How’s Lenore?” 

Kyria felt herself smile at the abrupt subject change. “We saw her just a few months ago.” 

“Right.” He sounded embarrassed at being called on his non sequitur, but she would admit just about anything was a better conversational topic than Lucifer wearing Sam to the end of the world. To _end_ the world. Because of Kyria. Not that Sam was blaming her. She did that just fine all on her own. “Anything new on the medical front?” 

She shrugged. “Bruce is looking over everything, and you know what they say about a fresh pair of eyes, but – it’s a long shot. It’s always been a long shot. We distributed the cure for new cases from an old Campbell recipe, but the rest of it . . . it’s right up there with cancer.” She sighed and shook her head again. “I’ve got the Twins monitoring our labs – all three of them.” Tony funded one of them. Actually, no, strike that, Tony _owned_ one of them and probably gave money to all three. There could be more than three, but that had been deemed too much of a security risk. 

“You have them monitoring a lot of things, don’t you?” Sam asked with amusement. 

“Well, I need to keep them busy and a little oversight goes a long way in preventing a wannabe-Frankenstein or another Harlem incident. Not that that was our sort of thing, but it could’ve been. It _was_ a SHIELD thing. Or at least it is now, anyway.” 

“I thought you liked Bruce.” 

“I do. The other guy, too. But neither was the problem in Harlem. _That_ was on Thunderbolt Ross and his obsession with Banner. And apparently the WSC wanted Fury to put Blonsky on the team. As if _he_ wasn’t the problem. I always knew I hated them.” It seemed every time she turned around, the WSC was making another questionable decision. Good thing Fury mostly went around them whenever possible. 

“Blonsky?” 

“Yeah. That was right after Nat sat observation on Stark, so she was already in New York. Blonsky was Ross’ attempt at an anti-Hulk, but he apparently went insane and decided to tear up the streets because the Hulk wasn’t right there to fight. There’s a reason he got called ‘Abomination.’” 

“Fun,” he deadpanned. 

“Isn’t it?” 

“Why would anyone want Blonsky as an Avenger after that?” he asked in genuine confusion after a beat. 

“Because they’re insane. Because they live to annoy the underlings. Because the Harlem incident was spun to blame Bruce. Because _Blonsky_ was blamed on Bruce. Because Ross probably blames Bruce for global warming and aliens invading New York and Tony Stark being born.” 

“That’s . . . wow.” 

“Welcome to my life, Sam. That doesn’t even scratch the surface.” The surface issues involved being born Morningstar, Lilith trying to free her father, and the fact that her call sign was now nationally recognizable. Digging deeper got down to things like the fact that Fury disappeared Phil, over-caffeinated billionaires called at all hours to pick her brain on Weird Alien Science (that she didn’t actually know much about), and no matter how much work she gave the Tech Twins she was still being forwarded complaints from SHIELD office drones that their computer wallpapers had been changed to pictures of cats or half-naked cartoon characters or (right after the casualty list from New York was released) Supernanny. 

“I used to be the one saying that.” 

Kyria let out a laugh. “Yeah, and then you met me. I can blow your mind without even trying.” She sighed, leaning back until her head gently _thunked_ against the bathroom wall. “Not that I mind the chitchat, but are you ever going to get to what you really called about?” 

“Uh . . .what?” 

“I’m a trained agent of SHIELD, I recognize dissembling when I hear it, even if I am extremely frustrated at the time. So. What did you want to talk to me about?” 

One of the good things about her specialized StarkPhone was that it got excellent reception everywhere, resulting in call quality so clear she could hear the rustling of Sam’s clothes as he shifted uncomfortably. What she _didn’t_ hear was any sign of Dean. 

“I – when I was fourteen we hunted a kitsune,” he said slowly. 

“Okay.” 

“And I made friends with her daughter.” 

“Oh.” 

“Yeah, um, she killed her mother. To protect me. She didn’t want to be like her mother, a – a monster. And I let her go.” 

Kyria didn’t need a roadmap to put those pieces together. “And now you’re tracking a kitsune.” 

The silence was very telling. 

“And Dean doesn’t know. Because you didn’t tell him. Now or then.” 

More clothes-rustling silence. 

She sighed. “Call your brother. Tell him you’re looking into the case with my help.” 

“You’ll help?” 

She resisted the strong urge to knock her head against the wall some more. “No, Sam, I went to Cold Oak, got you a consulting gig, and spent far too many hours attempting to organize stubborn, paranoid sons of bitches with small arsenals because _I’m not going to help._ Really. Now where am I meeting you?” 

***

It was right after her target dropped his keys that she realized there was someone behind her and turned. 

“Hi, Amy.” 

Everything from the man’s stance to his clothes to his weapons clearly spelled out _hunter._ There was only one with reason to know her name, however, and she didn’t know if it was good or bad that he was the hunter to come looking. She turned the instinctive grimace into a fake smile. “Sam. Wow.” Her throat was dry and her stomach twisted. _Not now, please, not now._

“Yeah.” 

“I just . . . never thought I’d see you again. What are you doing here?” She thought she knew the answer and it wasn’t one she liked. She had _tried_ to be careful. She really, really had. Too much was riding on this for her to screw it up. But she had anyway. It wasn’t like she had a manual on how to steal brains without detection. 

“I think you know.” 

Yes, she did. A hunter, in the woods, with her, now? He knew what she was and what she did and this was in no way going to go well. Sam was the one hunter she didn’t want to hurt, but she didn’t know if their past was enough for him to let her go. What she _said_ was, “You got tall, huh?” 

“Small talk? Really?” The words _I don’t want to hurt you_ got stuck in her throat, because given the alternative, she _would_. There was nothing she wouldn’t do at this point. He glanced pointedly toward the guy she’d targeted, currently getting into his car, and back to her. “Let’s take a walk.” 

Fear curled around her spine. “Sam –“ 

“Walk,” he insisted. 

Rather than start a fight she wasn’t sure she could win – and still hoped was unnecessary – she walked. 

“So,” Sam began, “same pattern, same victim pool – just like when we were kids.” 

It was all Amy could do not to cringe. _I did not turn into my mother!_ “No, I – it’s not what – look, I’m not – I’ve had the same job for the last six years. I – I have a house, two cats, a mortgage. I have a normal life.” 

“You call this normal?” 

“Sam.” There was judgment and condemnation in his voice. She could still remember when they agreed that all the cool people were freaks. “What I am, I’m managing it.” 

“You spiked three guys this week,” he pointed out. 

The fear spiraled. “No, you don’t understand. It’s not like that. I’m – I’m not just some murderer. I had to.” She _had_ to. It was _Jacob._ She’d do anything for him. 

“Why?” he pressed. 

She mutely shook her head. She couldn’t tell him, tell a _hunter_ about her son. Not when he was sick, when he was weak and defenseless and was going to die without her. “I can’t – I just had to. Please believe me, Sam,” she pleaded. 

He visibly wavered. 

“Sam, you know me.” 

He frowned and shook his head. “No. I knew you. But that was a long time ago.” 

“No, you know me,” she insisted. “You know the kind of person I am.” _I killed my mother for you._ That was blatantly manipulative and probably wouldn’t make him trust her. It could be a trump card if necessary. She really didn’t want to have to hurt him. 

Still he hesitated. 

“What kind of person are you?” 

Amy jumped and spun at the unexpected voice. A dark haired woman was standing casually beside a tree. Her seeming careless demeanor meant she was probably highly dangerous. Not good, not good at all. 

“Where’d you come from?” Amy asked nervously, shifting backwards so she could watch both Sam and the stranger. 

“I came with him,” the woman replied, jerking a thumb towards Sam. “He asked for help.” 

“Help?” Sam hadn’t asked his brother or father for help back when they were kids. Who was she that Sam asked her for help? “Who are you?” Amy demanded. Her chances of getting out of this with _two_ hunters, one of whom she didn’t have history with, dropped significantly. 

The woman gave a predatory smile. “I’m in charge of the government agency that handles supernatural elements discreetly. So you can imagine my curiosity that a kitsune has gone this long without leaving a trail of bodies before now.” 

Amy’s eyes widened. There was a _government agency_ that dealt with the supernatural? Well, there was a government agency that handled alien invasion, so it was possible. What did they want with _her_ though? 

A new fear sprung into existence: the thought of people experimenting on her son. _Over my dead body!_ Which did not seem like an insignificant possibility. 

She swallowed nervously. “I – I’m a mortician. I feed on the dead. I know. Not sexy, but, you know, health benefits.” _No attention, no hunters._

“And the recent bodies?” 

Amy shook her head, fear gripping her throat. “I – I _can’t_ – “ 

The woman studied her for a moment before relaxing. Amy blinked as the _deadly_ vibe vanished like it never existed. “My sister is trying to end the world.” 

“What?” 

“Well, she’s not technically my sister. My foster sister, really. She’s all set to martyr herself for my father and let him end the world.” 

“What?” she repeated in confusion. 

“I’m almost positive it’s my fault she’s in a position to do it. You remember the aliens in New York last spring?” 

“Um, yes. It was all over the news.” 

“I’m Orion.” 

Amy couldn’t help herself as her jaw dropped. National celebrity, superhero, government agent . . . hunter? 

“Kyria Lux, called Orion, called Morningstar, agent of SHIELD.” 

She choked. _“Mm - Morningstar?”_

Kyria shrugged. “Hawkeye’s an ex-carnie. Black Widow used to be a Russian assassin. Oh, and Thor’s brother is the one who brought the aliens to New York in the first place; Gabriel’s watching him now.” 

Amy felt faint. “G-Gabriel?” Because there was no way she could mean who she thought she was talking about – 

“The Archangel.” 

Amy shook her head because that was just too much to take in. Was this – was this really the devil’s daughter? 

Who talked to an archangel. 

And worked for the government. 

And was on television fighting aliens in New York. 

“What do you want from me?” 

Kyria’s grin was lopsided. “I’m not human. The _de facto_ head of the hunting community knows I’m not human, as does the director of SHIELD – my boss. In the four and a half years since I stopped a Hellgate from opening, the hunting community has become more organized and more . . . mm, shall we say lenient? Less shooting first, more asking questions. Which is why we’re kinda wondering why you’re suddenly dropping bodies again.” 

Ice coursed through her veins. She _wanted_ to believe – this was Sam, after all – but she couldn’t risk Jacob. But she also didn’t think she could outrun Orion. She’d seen all the footage from New York. More than once. Jacob loved watching it. She’d planned to get him a set of Avengers action figures for Christmas. If they made it to Christmas. 

But if hunters _were_ working with non-humans . . . maybe they could? 

No words came out of her mouth. Amy swallowed and tried again. “Feeding on the dead can be risky . . . especially for a kid.” 

“A kid?” Sam repeated in shock. 

Amy bit her lip. “I have a son. Jacob. He hasn’t done anything. He’s just – he’s sick.” 

“That’s why you needed fresh bodies.” 

Amy managed a shaky nod and tried not to think about her son being killed in his bed by one of his heroes. 

“Okay,” Kyria said with nod. 

“Okay what?” Amy said worriedly. 

“Is Jacob still sick?” 

“Yes?” 

“Then I’ll help you find someone the world will be better off without.” 

“You – what?” Amy shook her head. This couldn’t be happening. “Are you – you can’t be serious.” 

“Government intelligence agency. We kill people all the time. Killing lowlife drug-dealers to save a kid? I’m not going to object. Paperwork aside, none of the people I work with whose opinions matter will object. Just don’t make a habit of it.” 

Amy tried and failed not to gape open-mouthed. 

Kyria gave a wry smile. “My sister is trying to end the world and you think I’m gonna begrudge you your son’s life?” 

“I – well, when you put it that way,” Amy said weakly. 

“You remember the video where Iron Man was falling, and I hit him with lightning and fell off the roof?” 

“And – and the Hulk caught you? Yes.” Jacob had been fascinated with all of the footage from the New York Incident, and that was one of his favorite, non-alien battle scenes. She was fairly certain he had most of it recorded on a tape somewhere, and knew he hoped for someone to release a documentary about the battle. 

Real life superheroes appealed to a kid who knew he was different. All the cool people were freaks, after all. 

“From what I’ve been able to determine, that’s the moment Lilith got out of Hell. I asked Gabriel about it,” she continued. “He wouldn’t give me a straight answer, which is nothing new, but I was getting the impression that he agreed. Which means she’s out because of me. Admittedly it was unintentional, but it’s going to have a much higher body count then saving your son.” 

Amy felt light-headed. This – this was not what she was expecting. This was nowhere near resembling what she had expected, and subsequently she kept wondering if she was going to wake up. She looked back at Sam, who shrugged sheepishly. “I really didn’t want to have to kill you.” 

***

Kyria did in fact call SHIELD to identify a likely body to drop. Much to Amy’s amazement, they ended up going after a gun-running ring. And after she removed their pituitary glands, Kyria put a bullet through the hole in the corpses’ skulls. 

“It generates less paperwork if it looks like they died by more normal means. The medical examiner won’t look too closely during the autopsies.” 

Amy just nodded, clutching the jar of brains and hoping it would be enough to help Jacob. 

It was. 

Jacob was thrilled beyond words to meet Orion. 

Not wanting Sam to feel left out, Kyria suggested Amy find Carver Edlund at the bookstore. 

“The first part of the series is disturbing accurate, but once we found out there was a prophet following the Winchesters, SHIELD . . . _redirected_ the series. I’m told that no one has noticed a difference.” 

Amy even got to meet Sam’s brother, who proceeded to rip into Sam for going off half-cocked and not telling him. 

“I thought you were supposed to be the smart one! What the hell, Sam?! You can’t just take off like that! The black-eyed bitch is after you!” 

“Lilith has white eyes,” Kyria corrected. 

“Fine. The _white_ -eyed bitch wants you.” 

“She wants you too.” 

Dean transferred his glare to her and she shrugged. 

“Big red button,” he said, pointing at his brother. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect him.” 

“Point,” Kyria admitted with a faint grimace. 

Dean gave her a sparse nod before turning back to his brother. “I’m happy for you that Amy here is now on the friendly list. I am. Truly. But possibly monstrous old girlfriends are no excuse to disappear with no warning! You can’t just disappear on me! Last time something like that happened, that yellow-eyed sonuvabitch tried to open a door to Hell!” 

Amy turned to Kyria with wide eyes. The SHIELD agent shrugged. “You get used to it.”

**Author's Note:**

> I _did_ say I didn't like killing off characters. And really, in the altered hunter's environment of the R &S 'verse, Amy wouldn't be killed. _Supernatural_ likes killing off characters too much. I, on the other hand, have a literary saving-people-thing.


End file.
